Well, I’ve been trying to complete this blog post for ages. Every time I start working through my pictures, I get pulled away from what I’m doing, and this has probably happened a dozen times since I’ve tried to complete this post. So, it’s a little behind… Right after July 4th, the girls and I went down to Hartfield to have some fun with the cousins and the fam. The “river girls” seem to keep getting more and more adventurous every summer with their river girl requirements, and this trip down they were super lucky not to have any jellyfish to contend with in the river, so they had an awesome time jumping off the boat, tubing, swimming in the river - all without a care of getting stung. It was awesome!
Mouse and Pops got their pontoon boat in the water, then Garland met us in the cove with the Williams boat, and the kids dogs had a great time jumping off the boats and swimming. It was a beautiful first afternoon on the water!
Cleo and Cayenne were easily able to jump off the pontoon boat because it is lower to the water, so they would jump in the water also and swim with the girls. The only complicated part was getting them back up the ladder into the boat afterwards! :)
Of course, tubing was a highlight in addition to swimming in the river. It was a bonus that Uncle Bo came down for the day and night, so he went tubing with them. They all had some pretty wild rides again this time around, but evidently my camera and I missed the most epic of rides the next day. On this occasion, everyone stayed in the tube (although barely), but the next day, everyone was tossed from the tube in fantastic fashion from what I heard. I was so bummed to have missed the chance to get pictures of that!
The girls did so much playing in the water and swimming every day, and the dogs did so much of the same. Cayenne and Cleo were a whirlwind of running, wrestling, and playing, and it didn’t really matter if it happened on land or in the water. Cleo was a little shadow to Cayenne, and wherever Cayenne went, Cleo wasn’t far behind. They had such a great time playing, running, swimming, jumping off the dock, and more. Maggie kind of filled the role of Puppy Patrol (even though she’s younger than Cayenne). She’d keep an eye on the two rowdy ones, and every once in awhile get in the mix and break things up if it got too rowdy.
With exception of an afternoon storm one day, the weather was really nice and beautiful for making the most of spending time outside.
(Lyla and Layne walked down to the dock with me when I went down to take few pictures of the sunset, so I was able to get their picture there.)
One other “must do” for Lyla every time we’re at Hartfield is to walk down to the horse farm to see all the horses. Throughout the years, Lyla has given them names and loves to call them over to the fence and feed them grass. She is a horse girl for sure!
We headed back home after four fun days at Hartfield, and we always leave with great memories of a wonderful time doing simple things outdoors, playing with cousins, and spending time with family. Until next time...
